MEANING ENTRY: Frankly, I do not like, nor do I buy, this chapter. The discussion almost killed me to listen to. All the talk of "finding yourself" and "discovering your life's meaning" and "spiritual contentedness" almost made me lose my lunch. Pink is extremely good at convincing his audience that he is right, but I being one of the sole voices of decent in the class, have to tread carefully. During the Meaning live blog, a woman named Vickie joined us. While I always respect her opinions and I realize that she would not have been invited if she was not an intelligent woman, I was inflamed by her presumptuousness. She refuted everything I said using her own personal religion which I would have appreciated if she had not brought up quite so often. I knew I was the only a-religious voice in the classroom, but I felt like I had to be extra careful not to hurt her feelings or beliefs. Meaning is easier to talk about for people like me when religion is not its fundamental argument.
In order to connect meaning with world languages I am forced to play the devil's advocate. Learning a new language and traveling to a foreign country where that is the first language amongst the locals can be very self-realizing. One can see the different cultures of different regions and their narrow mind will expand. Traveling to different areas often makes a person see the woes of other countries and maybe in visiting these places they can discover what they want to do to help the situation of the world.
Frankly, I do not like, nor do I buy, this chapter. The discussion almost killed me to listen to. All the talk of "finding yourself" and "discovering your life's meaning" and "spiritual contentedness" almost made me lose my lunch. Pink is extremely good at convincing his audience that he is right, but I being one of the sole voices of decent in the class, have to tread carefully. During the Meaning live blog, a woman named Vickie joined us. While I always respect her opinions and I realize that she would not have been invited if she was not an intelligent woman, I was inflamed by her presumptuousness. She refuted everything I said using her own personal religion which I would have appreciated if she had not brought up quite so often. I knew I was the only a-religious voice in the classroom, but I felt like I had to be extra careful not to hurt her feelings or beliefs. Meaning is easier to talk about for people like me when religion is not its fundamental argument.
In order to connect meaning with world languages I am forced to play the devil's advocate. Learning a new language and traveling to a foreign country where that is the first language amongst the locals can be very self-realizing. One can see the different cultures of different regions and their narrow mind will expand. Traveling to different areas often makes a person see the woes of other countries and maybe in visiting these places they can discover what they want to do to help the situation of the world.